Mattias Larsson, 21 years old and with a green belt. Training judo in Gävle Judoclub (Sweden) and has been practicing judo for eight years. His dream is to write a book about judo. His rolemodels on the club is his coaches Bengt, Mia and Tomas. In his spare time he listens to a lot of music.

Judo is a sport for me that you dont need to had trained any martial arts before  to start with. Judo involves both respect and control. Judo means the gentle way. I have been practicing judo for eight years in Gävle Judoclub. The best camp I have been to is when we went to Holland in 2008. It was very nice but the contest was pretty tough. It was so tough matches that I had to go to ge help because of my feet had started to bleed.

You can have many different types of specialities in judo. You can be really good at nea waza while others on their throws and footsweeps. Judo is a great way to train your body, you get the benefit of the whole training in many ways. Both legs, arms, stomach and back gets to work. Good training even for your coordination and other movements. A good Judo-companion for me is a person who is both helpful and supportive.

Besides training you can meet new friends, I have had many coaches who have been very supportive, proactive and committed. The ones I looked up to are my first coaches Bengt, Mia and Tomas. I think my club have a good relationship between buddies and coaches. If my club would win a sum of money, I would be very happy and grateful! If I could choose, I would have wanted the money to go to the club’s dressing room by making them bigger so more can fit to change.

I have one bad judoexperience. When I was in a camp in Finland I met an opponent that would not let me go even though I clapped, I thought it was very uncomfortable when he lay heavily over me. He refused to let go and finally a coach came and lifted him off me. It took at least half an hour before I could breathe normally again. I thought that he did not really understand that I clapped, but i think he learned after that.

My dream is to write a book about judo. It would both be about my own journey and the sport in general. I look forward to this and also to write on the judoblog once again.

By The keys

Mattias Larsson